Falun Gong Refugees Find Comfort in New Zealand

There’s a legend in China that the udumbara flower blossoms only once every 3,000 years.

[Sanpu He, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
“I saw two bunches of small white flowers on the window and iron bar. The flowers were very small and had long branches.”

In Buddhism, the flower symbolizes a blessing from the heavens. But for Sanpu He it symbolized light at the end of what seemed like an endless tunnel. Sanpu had been sent to a forced labor camp.

[Sanpu He, Falun Gong Practitioner]:

“Five or six high voltage electric clubs were used to shock me on my head, back of the ears, face, neck and other body parts for a long time, when the electric clubs ran out of battery, they changed to new ones.”

His crime, according to the Chinese Communist Party, is his belief in Falun Gong, a meditation practice with core values of truthfulness, compassion, and tolerance.

[Sanpu He, Falun Gong Practitioner]:

“We follow truth, compassion and tolerance, become a good person, the best person. When we understand these principles, our mind will be calm.”

But this calm wasn’t going to last long. China’s authoritarian regime felt threatened by Falun Gong’s increasing popularity. In 1999, the regime launched a brutal campaign of persecution, sending thousands of people like Sanpu to prisons and labor camps.

Sanpu and his family eventually fled China. They’re now some six-and-a-half thousand miles from their homeland—settled in Auckland, New Zealand. They cannot return to the country of their ancestry; any fond memories they had have now faded to scars.

But compared to many, their story still has a happy ending. Huang Guohua was not as lucky. He and his daughter Huang Ying have lost the most important woman in their lives forever.

[Huang Guohua, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
„For a child who lost her mum when she was only one year old, the harm for her whole life can never be made up.“

So what does little Ying wish for?

[Huang Ying, Guohua’s Daughter]:
„To have my Mum back.“

At only 29 years old, Guohua’s wife, Luo Zhi Xiang, also a Falun Gong practitioner, was tortured to death in a Chinese prison. At that time she was three months pregnant with their second child. Today Guohua brings up little Ying alone in New Zealand, a country he knows little about. But his eternal love for his wife and hope for his motherland remain.

[Huang Guohua, Falun Gong Practitioner]:
“All practitioners will have a free and lawful environment to practice Falun Gong in China. I believe this will happen, but I will never get my wife back.”

The Huang family and the He family now find peace together at this Falun Gong practice site in Auckland. Their children play together and they’re managing to settle in, getting jobs and learning English.

Both men also spend much of their spare time raising awareness about the persecution that’s still ongoing in China. But despite the conditions there at present, they still have hope for China’s future.

Falun Gong practitioners have been reporting many sightings of the udumbara flower, which symbolizes good fortune is on its way.

Gina Shakespeare, NTD News, Auckland, New Zealand.

(NTDTV)